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Larry Cuban's thoughtful op-ed in Sunday's Washington Post has received remarkably little attention in the education blogosphere.  That's surprising, because he assesses the performance of DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, whose name is usually catnip to education bloggers everywhere.

Cuban argues that Rhee is a sprinter in a world where marathon runners are most likely to succeed.  He faults her and other sprinters for attempting to tackle the unions far too early while paying little attention to other critical ingredients of long-term school reform:

[Sprinters] suffer from ideological myopia. They believe low test scores and achievement gaps between whites and minorities result in large part from knuckle-dragging union leaders defending seniority and tenure rights that protect lousy teachers. Such beliefs reflect a serious misreading of why urban students fail to reach proficiency levels and graduate from high school.

As important as it is to get rid of incompetent teachers, doing so will not turn around the D.C. school system or any other broken district. The failure of urban schools has more to do with turnstile superintendencies, partially implemented standards and other factors that trump the small percentage of teachers who are just putting in time. 

I'll withhold judgment on Chancellor Rhee.  I have not followed the DC battles closely enough to render a verdict on her performance. 

I do think it's fair to criticize the education press, however, who almost always favor the sprint over the marathon.  We read a great deal about outsized personalities who propose dramatic, controversial innovations and do battle with unions.  Fair enough--they have an important influence on national conversations about innovation and education.

But why do we hear so little about those marathoners who build up a long track record of sustained improvement in their districts?  For example, Cuban mentions the achievements of Beverly Hall, the Atlanta superintendent who can boast sustained increases in district NAEP scores for reading and math in both fourth and eighth grades.

The education media feed the public appetite for immediate fixes, and they promote the false sense that every good innovation requires a knock-down battle.  Unfortunately, the public is suffering from battle fatigue, and this has terrible consequences for reformers and traditionalists alike.   

It's high time to pay more attention to the "unsung" long-distance runners of education reform.